


Citizen of The Future

by Ninja_A



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Children of Earth Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 13:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninja_A/pseuds/Ninja_A
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One man with determination can save the planet, but can he also change the past?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Citizen of The Future

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, I don`t own anyone, even though I think I could take better care of them. {pouts}

-1-

"Do you really think you can play us any longer?" Frobisher asked. 

"We can try." Gwen replied defiantly. 

"No," Jack said voice hollow, raising blank eyes he looked at Gwen. 

"Call Rhys, tell him we failed." 

Gwen stared at him beseeching, begging that he had just one more miracle to pull out of his sleeve. One more trick to stop this nightmare. 

Jack had nothing to give her. All he had left was the hollow beat of his heart and the endless refrain. 

'he's gone he's gone you`ve lost him he`s gone '

stuck in his head, in his heart, in every fiber of his being. Jack had nothing left to give Gwen because he had nothing left inside himself. 

His heart had died with a brave young Welshmen, taken before his time. 

Never before had Jack ached so badly just to not wake up, then he had on that marble floor in front of the gas chamber. 

With a stiff nod of her head Gwen rose to make the call. 

After she was a few feet away and had began to dial her mobile, Frobisher asked Jack, 

"What made you believe you could succeed in in scaring them off?" 

Jack thought. 

'Because he believed in me, forgave me when I didn't forgive myself, because I didn't want to see disappointment in his eyes, because I was a fool.' 

Jack was saved from having to answer by a hurried looking soldier walking swiftly up to Frobisher and bending to whisper urgently in his ear. 

Jack saw the other mans face go from concern to out right shock. 

"What about the others?" He asked the soldier. 

"No, Sir. Just him." He replied, his eyes flicking quickly to Jack. 

"Keep him secured, I'll be along shortly." 

Frobisher waved the soldier away. 

 

After the solder had walked away, Frobisher leaned closer to Jack, Gwen seeing this came back to her seat. The administrator did not spare her a glance. 

"I thought you were the only one who did not stay dead, Captain Harkness?" 

"What do you mean, I am." Jack replied, thoroughly confused. 

"All I know of right now is that twenty-three minutes ago the cameras in the temporary morgue shorted out, and when they came back on line three minutes later your associate Mr. Jones was alive. So I ask, how did you do it?" 

For Jack it all boiled down to one fact. 

"Ianto`s alive?" He gasped. 

 

-2- 

 

"Alive, how. I saw his body." Gwen stated. 

"We don't know how . But maybe you could enlighten us, Captain." 

Both Frobisher and Gwen looked at Jack. 

All he could do was shake his head, mind reeling. 

'Ianto, alive.' He was sure that the moment he believed it, it would prove to be some misunderstanding. 

"I didn't do it." Jack said, to Gwen's shocked face and Frobisher skeptical. 

"Yes, well. Mr. Jones has been confined and seen by a medic. He's definitely genuinely alive. I`m going to question him now. Maybe then I'll get some answers." 

Jack stood, and saw four guards stand and leveled there assault rifles at him. 

"You're taking me to him." Jack stated. 

"I don't think your in any position to be giving orders." 

"Your taking me to him." Jack said again, steel in his voice and murder in his eyes. 

And perhaps Frobisher finally remembered all the mission reports he had read through out the years, remembered that no matter how broken Jack had appeared moments ago, he was a dangerous man. 

Nodding, Frobisher said, "Fine." 

Leading them down a hallway to the lift they went back to the floor were many laid dead, Jack included for a short time. And now it appeared that Ianto had been spared as well. Jack couldn't believe it until he saw him with his own eyes. 

To think he was alive only to be proved wrong was to invite madness. 

The lift door opened in to another hallway. The double doors of the morgue straight ahead. 

Frobisher led them right down the hallway and in to a small room with a two way mirror looking in to the next room. And in that room was Ianto looking as he did yesterday afternoon. 

He was already being questioned by a black man in a dark green uniform. It appeared they would have to wait for there answers as Ianto seemed as puzzled as everyone else. Hands running in his hair, he was shacking his head 'No' emphatically to what ever was being asked of him. 

To Jack there had never been a more beautiful sight. Not sunlight after being buried for hundred of years, not the face of his long awaited Doctor. 

But this, a young man thought gone. Either brave enough or stupid enough to love Jack. And Jack knew he would spend the rest of Ianto`s life making sure he never regretted that fact. 

Meanwhile Frobisher snapped at a man similarly uniformed but of a lower rank. 

"I thought he was to be secured until I could question him." 

"Colonel Oduya made this a top priority. He has to know if this is connected to the   
456." The man replied. 

Jack saw his uniform was free of any name or distinguishing marks, except the stars on his shoulders. 

Jack returned his eyes to the two-way in time to see the Colonel rise from his seat across from Ianto. Jack saw him pick up a until now unnoticed object from the table that had been pointed at Ianto. 

What Jack could make out before the Colonel put it in his pocket was something long and slender that rather resembled a metal straw. 

He exited the questioning room and entered their half. He seemed unsurprised to see Jack and Gwen there. 

"Well, what did he say?" Frobisher asked. "Did the 456 bring him back?" 

"Whatever happened to him or who ever revived him, Mr. Jones has no knowledge of this." The Colonel stated. 

"But how do you know he's telling the truth. Or if he's been compromised." 

"We have our ways Mr. Frobisher. And as far as we can tell, Mr. Jones unexpected return to life was in no way connected to the   
456." 

He turned now to Jack. 

"The last thing he remembers is dying in your arms ." 

"Please, may I see him." Jack voice broke. 

The Colonel stared at Jack. Jack would never know what the other man saw when he looked at him that convinced him. Perhaps Jacks utter determination to get in to the next room. 

"For a moment, then all of you are to be escorted to your cells. You are as of now prisoners of Great Britain." 

Jack turned to Frobisher. 

"Keep me, but let the others go. This was all my idea. The others were only following orders." Jack pleaded.

At his words, Jack saw something change in the other mans expression. 

Frobisher hesitated for moment, then said. 

"Mrs. Cooper and her husband may go for now, but you and Mr. Jones are staying here." 

"Fine." Jack nodded. Truth be told he was relieved to keep Ianto with him. 

Jack turned to Gwen. He wrapped her in his arms, resting his lips above her ear. 

Releasing her, he gave her a nod. 

"We'll be all right ." 

As one of the grunts took her by the elbow to escort her out, she turned back to Jack one last time. 

"Tell Ianto I love him, yeah." 

"I will." That's not all he would tell him. 

Jack turned back to the Colonel. 

"You have five minutes. A guard will be outside the door. So no more daring   
escapes." 

Nodding Jack left the room and faced the next door. 

 

-3- 

 

Jack reached out to the doorknob and gently grasped it. Only then did he notice his hand trembling slightly. 

He was suddenly gripped with the terrible fear that he would open the door on an empty room. That he would open his eyes and be back in a room with hundreds of dead bodies and only one that mattered. 

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open. 

He was greeted by the sight of Ianto pacing the small space. 

He turned around at the sound of the door. Jack stepped into the room. One of the guards closed the door behind him. 

"Jack." Ianto rushed into his arms. Slowly, hesitantly, Jack brought his arms around him. He closed stinging eyes at the familiar feel of this man in his arms, pressed close to his body. He buried his face into Ianto's hair, which still smelled of smoke from the explosion. 

"Ianto." Jack whispered, finally believing the other man was real. Finally believing they had been given a second chance. 

Jack drew back and held Ianto`s face in his hands. Unashamed of the tears leaving tracks on his face. Lightly, he brushed his thumbs over Ianto cheek bones. Drinking his fill, he wanted this Ianto, so brave and sure even when frightened to banish the image of the other, cold and so, so still. 

Slowly, Jack brushed his lips over Ianto`s once, twice until the other man surged forward with a broken cry and took Jack lips as his own. Brutal and tender by turn, it seemed as if Ianto wanted to relive every kiss they had ever shared and every kiss they had almost never gotten to. 

"Ianto...need...need to tell you." Jack muttered between kisses. He could tell Ianto hadn't heard a word he said. He indulged for one more moment, then slowly drew back. 

He knew a clock was ticking away their time together. 

He stared at Ianto, noticing the full blown pupils and reddened lips. 

"They said I died." He asked hoarsely. 

"You did." Jack breathed. 

"You were gone. There was nothing I could do. Century worth of knowledge and what good was any of it. And I didn't even say..." 

Jack trailed off, pressing his lips to Ianto`s temple, one hand threaded through his hair, the other clutching his hip, Jack continued. 

"That I love you beyond all reason. I never expected someone like you. You came into my life like a super nova. You re-made me, Ianto and I never thought I could feel this way again, I thought those parts of me were long dead, but you brought me back to life." 

He kissed away the salt on Ianto`s cheeks. 

"I never could of forgotten you, because no matter how long you live you never forget the love of your live ." 

He saw something in Ianto change at his words. A light come in to his eyes replacing shadows of doubt that had been there too long. 

With a hitch in his breath Jack brought Ianto close, leaning his forehead against his. Ianto`s eye`s fluttered close and a tear escape`t. For just one second Jack just stood there and breathed, the other man a warm presence at his front and finely let himself believe that Ianto was real. 

A clock on the wall caught Jack`s eye and reminded him there time was short. But before the soldiers came he had questions. 

"What happened. What can you remember?" 

"Nothing." Ianto shook his head in frustration. 

 

"I remember shooting at the gas chamber, the aliens releasing the virus. Growing cold. But all I have after that is waking up on the floor, surrounded by all those   
dead bodies." Ianto shivered. Jack tightened his grip on the younger man. 

"What's going on? How`s Gwen and   
Rhys and Clem? " 

 

"Their letting Gwen and Rhys go for now. Clem...Clem is dead." 

"How?" 

"I`m not quite sure. Something the 456 did after releasing the toxin. Gwen said it was some sort of sonic noise that only affected him." 

"And the children?" He asked sadly. 

"There going to give them up." Jack replied quietly. 

The door behind them clanged with a heavy vibration. 

It seemed their five minutes were up. 

Grasping Ianto by the hand he turned to open the door, "What ever happens, I`ll try to stick with you." 

Ianto brushed his thumb over Jack pulse point. 

"I know." He gave the other man a slight smile though his face was grim. 

"I`m not letting you go again." Jack vowed. 

With that Jack opened the thick metal door. 

Not to be greeted by two guards, but by six men in full combat regalia. 

They parted to allow a slight woman in black to stand front and center. The woman that sealed Jack into a concrete tomb. 

"Captain Jack Harkness. Agent Johnson. I have it on good authority that your the man that stops the monsters." 

 

 

-4- 

 

Minutes later, screeching up in front of the formerly abandoned military barracks, Jack still had no idea what they expected him to do. How do you fight a enemy with unknown power and no mercy for those that suffered at their expense. 

Seeing Ianto beside him in the backseat straighten his already perfect tie, Jack concluded that they had to find a way. 

Some weakness, some unexplored vulnerability. 

Something to send this monsters back to hell and keep the children of Earth safe. 

Entering the barracks, Jack and Ianto were led to a cavernous room that had desks with a multitude of computers on them. 

Jack noticed an older man he had seen briefly at Thames House. 

Johnson introduced them. 

"Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones meet Mr. Dekker. He`s studied everything about the 456 since their appearance in the 60`s." 

"I don`t know what you think you can do. I`ve been over every transmission, every bit of data. There's no way we can fight them." 

"We have to try." Jack said shrugging off his coat and heading for one of the main computers. 

As Ianto went to the one beside Jack, he asked. 

"Who told you to come for Jack." 

"She did." Johnson nodded behind them. 

They both turned. Ianto saw a dark haired woman standing just inside the entrance of the room. He instantly knew who she was. He would have recognized those eyes anywhere. 

"I know you can stop this Dad." She said, quietly. 

"We're going to try." 

Turning back to the computers, Jack asked Dekker. 

"What can you tell me about these transmission." 

"I`ve been over them a hundred times. There's nothing there." 

Johnson swiftly brought out her gun and shot him in the thigh. Dekker fell with a shout.

"You can start being helpful or I can start shooting higher." 

A grunt came along and wrapped a temporary bandage around the wound. He swiftly brought Dekker back on unsteady feet, ignoring a moan of pain. 

"What about the way they killed Clem, what was that?" Jack asked. 

"We have it recorded here." Johnson brought over a laptop. 

Jack played the noise, which sounded like a high pitched scream. 

 

"This is new." Dekker said, hobbling closer. 

"You`ve never heard this before?" Jack asked. 

"Never, and you say this killed a man? Maybe this is its weapon." 

"And all weapons can be turned on its   
owners." 

"We don`t have time to translate it." Ianto said, clicking away at the laptop. 

"We don`t have to translate it, just copy   
it." Jack replied. 

"But if we want to send it back, how do we broadcast it ?" Ianto wondered. 

"You know how we can broadcast it, don`t you Captain Harkness?" Dekker asked. 

"Shut up." Jack hissed. 

"What?" Ianto asked, looking between the two. 

"They use children to communicate with us and we can do the same." 

"I`ll find another way." 

"What's the problem?" Johnson spoke up. 

"We don`t have nearly the finesse with this technology as they do, the child we use to broadcast would fry." 

"Dad ." Alice said, eyes frightened. 

"Captain we're running out of time." 

"Dad . No " 

Options flew through Jack's mind, searching, hoping for some other answer. Some other way to save millions of children and defeat a enemy that threatened them all. 

Just as Jack was about to make the hardest decision of his very long life, Ianto shouted. 

"Eric Miller." 

Everyone in the room stared at him. 

"What?" Johnson finally asked. 

"Torchwood file #34B12. Eric Miller." 

Recognition sparked in Jacks eyes. 

"The memory swiper." 

"Memory swiper?" Jonhson asked. 

"An alien artifact, meant to destroy or manipulate a beings memory. Only problem was what ever kind of alien they were, their minds were very different then ours. 

Eric Miller was the first person to come in contact with it. It left him in a coma. We were never able to find the reason. All scans showed a perfectly healthy adolescent brain." 

"How adolescent?" Johnson asked. 

Ianto answered. "He`s eight. He`s in the coma ward of St. Helen's hospital." 

 

"That's twenty minutes away. We`ll never make it in time." Dekker said. 

Jack grinned. "I`ll get us there in ten." 

Johnson nodded. "We have to go now. I`ll order a team to the hospital waiting for   
us." She gestured to her men. "Grab those computers and lets go." 

Jack turned to Alice "Stay here. You`ll be safe ." He and Ianto went to follow the others, Ianto snagging Jack`s coat. When they were half way down the hall Alice shouted. 

"Ianto." He stopped and turned around. She ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek. 

"Thank you." She whispered in his ear. 

Blushing, he nodded and turned back around to leave. 

 

 

-5- 

Striding down the hospital hallway, no one tried to stop them. When you travel with your own army, that tended to happen. 

"101, 103, 105. Here we are." Jack nodded towards the room. 

Walking in they saw a small boy laying in the bed. If not for the I.V. in his hand, he appeared as if he were only sleeping. Though Jack knew he was eight, he appeared no older then five. 

Dekker directed the soldiers to place four small cones in a square on the floor. 

"Yes, now place the boy in the middle." 

A nurse came to the door, protesting. 

"Oi, who are you. You can`t do that." 

Johnson quickly intercepted her. 

"This is a matter of national security. You have to leave." She pushed the nurse back, and shut the door. 

"Quickly, quickly now. Connect the computers to the amplifier. Hurry." Dekker ordered. 

"Jack." Ianto grabbed his hand. 

"I just wanted to tell you that no matter what happens here, thank you. Knowing you has been quite an adventure." 

"Hey," Jack squeezed his hand, "the adventure isn't over yet." 

"We're ready. Captain Harkness I`ll need your help with this." 

"Right." He went up to the other laptop and began typing. After a few minutes they were ready. 

After glancing at each other, Jack and Decker pushed keys simultaneously. 

And for the fifth and final time Eric Miller opened his eyes. 

And succeeded in saving the world. 

 

 

-6- 

 

-SIX MONTHS LATER- 

 

"And let there be light." 

With the press of a button, Jack Harkness turned on the light in the official reopening of the Hub 2. It had been a long, hard process. But here they finally were. The team, back together were they belonged. 

"I`ll get the champagne." Ianto said. 

"Oi, if I`m going to be office manger for the next few months, I might as well start now." The heavily pregnant Gwen said. 

"So, champagne all around and a sparkling cider for me." She went to their mini kitchen. 

"So, Rhys. What do you think about being a stay at home daddy?" Jack asked. 

"I`m bloody thrilled I am. I`m going to teach him how to root for The Reds." 

 

"Rhys, picking on the child before it can defend it`s self, that's not fair." Ianto joked, leaning against Jack. Jack slipped his arm around Ianto`s waist. 

"Boys, boys. No fighting, this is suppose to be a party." 

"And what`s a party without a prezzie." Gwen said from behind Jack and Ianto. 

Turning around, Jack saw that Gwen held a small box in her hands. 

"They found it in the wreckage." 

Opening the box, he found his watch. 

"It looks to be as indescribable as you are." Ianto said, grinning. 

"All we had to do was get a new wrist band for it." 

"Cost me fifty quid." Said Rhys. 

"Bill me." Fired back Jack, fitting the band on. 

Flipping open the top he saw a light blinking. Brow furrowed, he pressed a button and a hologram person projected out in front of them all. 

That person was Jack. He looked no older then they had ever seen him, but something in the eyes and posture suggested that they were seeing a man much aged. 

"If your getting this, it means it worked. I had this massage tied in to Ianto`s heart beat. If I had failed you would have never know I tried . For me it`s been eighty years since the 456 came to earth. I left earth myself, spent awhile running, trying to get lost amongst the stars. But after while I realized that instead of running I should be searching. Searching for a way to bring him back." 

Silently the Jack of now wrapped Ianto in his arms. 

"I found a device that could give life. Not half life like Owen but for real. It reguvated cells on a level unknow at this time. The only problem was it no longer worked forty-eight house after death. So I had to find a way to go back." 

The hologram gave a bitter grin. 

"That led to The Doctor, as most things seem to do. I`m not sure which surprised him more. The fact that I figured out how to fix my Vortex Menepulater or that I stole technology from him to do it . 

I`ve changed the past so I don`t know what will happen to me. If I`ll simply blink out of existence. That's OK I suppose, the closets I`ll ever come to dying. And if that`s not what happens, don`t worry you won`t see me. I know all about not crossing our time line." 

The hologram seemed to see where Jack was standing and stare in to him. 

"You have him for so short a time. A handful of minutes really. So you have to make each one count. And Ianto, if your there." 

The hologram shuddered a sigh. 

"I never told you and I should have. Turns out not saying you love them doesn't make it easier to loose them. If any thing it makes it harder. So, I`m saying it now. I`ve always loved you, never doubt that. And Harkness, don`t screw it up." 

He snapped off a smart salute and was gone. 

Silence rang. Gwen quietly handed off all the drinks. 

Raising hers, she said. 

"To Torchwood." 

"To Torchwood." They echoed. 

Jack raised his glass and looking at Ianto said. 

"To us." 

"To us." Ianto replied, leaning up and kissing him softly. 

Jack knew all about the concept of time, how quickly it could slip through your fingers and how long it could strech when alone.   
Knew how short a mortal life was.   
And Jack didn't plan to waste any of the time he had left with Ianto.

-finis-


End file.
